


trying to find out what's been missing

by shini_amaryllis



Series: heavy is the head that wears the crown [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Gen, Parent Tony Stark, Peter is a sunshine child, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony as Peter's actual dad and finding out about it 10 years later, basically learning how to be a dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 13:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20097943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shini_amaryllis/pseuds/shini_amaryllis
Summary: Tony was not what anyone looked for in a father, but he was all Peter had for living parents but May wasn't about to let him near Peter if he didn't clean up his act. Luckily, that was all the incentive that Tony needed.AU where Peter is Tony's biological son and Tony only finds out after the events of IM2





	trying to find out what's been missing

May knew it wasn’t what her sister had wanted, but she broke the seal on the letter that had remained unbroken for almost a decade, since her sister had given it to her, along with Peter, the night Mary and Richard died in that plane crash.

“Give this to Peter when he’s fifteen…if things…” Mary had swallowed thickly and looked away, like she’d known something was going to happen.

May waited until Peter was ten, and then Ben was killed and she waited a little longer. She waited until Peter almost died at the Stark Expo, then she opened it.

Its contents struck her. Richard Parker not being Peter’s biological father was startling, even more so than the fact that Peter was actually born on time rather than several weeks early, as Mary had been saying. Their marriage had been a quick one after Mary was found to be pregnant and Richard was a good man, making sure Mary was looked after…now knowing that he wasn’t even Peter’s father, that meant so much more to her. But even more surprising was the identity of Peter’s father.

Tony Stark.

May wanted to throw something, but she reined it in. She made a copy and sent it to Tony Stark with her phone number on it. Honestly, she didn’t expect much of it; it wasn't like billionaires had time to look through what could be fan mail.

Then her phone rang.

_“May Parker?”_ came a voice on the other end.

“Yes?”

_“This is Tony Stark…I’ve got a…letter here about—”_

“About my nephew,” May wrapped an arm around her waist, looking down the hall to Peter’s room, where he was no doubt fast asleep. “You’re welcome to test his DNA, but I won’t allow you to see him.”

_“Excuse me?”_

May’s eyes were sharp. “I’ve seen you systematically destroy your life the past few months. If _-if_\- Peter is your son, I don’t want you around him until you’ve cleaned up your act.”

And then she ended the call.

Within a month, she had the results, and there was a man knocking at her door, vibrating apart at the edges and promising if she gave him the chance, he’d be on his best behavior for the kid, _his_ kid.

May let him in.

“Peter’s down the hall,” she told him, taking his flowers, “maybe you should wait to drop the ‘daddy bomb’ on him.”

Tony swallowed, his nervousness clear, but he still walked down the hall and knocked politely on Peter’s door.

All May could hear was Peter’s excitement and Tony’s chuckles, and that made all the trouble worth it.

* * *

Tony should’ve known Peter would figure it out. The kid was ten and he wasn’t _stupid_, not by a long shot.

“Mister Tony?” Peter was holding his hand, swinging his arm as they walked, his other hand holding an ice cream cone that Tony had just bought him. His sunglasses were more tinted than usual and he’d dressed down, making an effort to not draw attention to the fact that he was indeed Tony Stark.

Pepper was impressed with the lengths he’d gone to provide a bit of anonymity for Peter, but Tony had grown up in the spotlight and he didn’t necessarily want the same life for Peter.

“Yeah, kid?”

“Are you my dad?”

That drew Tony up short and he looked down at Peter, Peter whose brown eyes and hair he’d inherited from Tony, but the softness of his cheeks from his mother. Tony could barely remember Mary Parker -Fitzpatrick she’d been, then-, but that wasn’t saying much, that was generally how his flings had gone, but he’d looked her up when he’d gotten the scanned letter from May where Mary told Peter that Tony was his father. She was a scientist, just like her husband…Tony had used a pick up line about math to make her laugh and then they’d talked chemical formulas before Tony’d taken her back to his hotel room.

“C’mere,” Tony said, leading them over a park bench and sitting down.

Peter licked his ice cream, waiting.

How did you explain to a ten-year-old that you were their father?

“Yes,” he went with blunt and wanted to hit himself, “I’m your father.”

Peter nodded, surprisingly serious for a ten-year-old.

“Not that Richard, your dad, isn’t any less your dad,” Tony added quickly, “you just get me, too…like a _bonus_ dad.”

“Okay,” Peter said before grinning, “May’s a bonus mom, you know.”

Tony nodded as though that wasn’t news to him, which, it really wasn’t, and, from what he understood from May, she and her husband had raised Peter after his parents’ deaths when he was just a baby, and even though Ben had been killed in a mugging earlier that year, she was still caring for Peter all on her own (less now, but the point still stood). Tony couldn’t imagine how hard it was to raise a ten-year-old alone in the city where your husband was killed. May Parker was made of something tougher than vibranium, that was for sure.

And Tony was glad of it. She’d raised his kid right and now Tony was playing catch-up. People used to think that he didn’t want kids, and that wasn’t completely true; Tony hadn’t wanted a kid that would’ve grown up like him with someone like Howard Stark for a father.

Peter, Tony knew without a doubt, had been raised right. He had all of that curiosity and all-consuming desire to take in as much information as possible and take apart things to see how they worked that Tony had lost as a child raised by Howard Stark.

“May’s amazing,” Tony couldn’t deny that.

_“Yeah!”_ Peter appeared particularly happy about that, but May was an easy person to love and after seeing how steadfast her devotion was to Peter and his well-being, Tony couldn’t help but be glad.

“How d’you feel about that?” Tony asked cautiously, swiping a bead of melted ice cream from Peter’s chin that he’d missed. “Me being your dad?”

“I think you’re cool,” Peter said stoutly and warmth rose in Tony’s chest as a grin spread across his face. He wrapped an arm around his son’s shoulders, tugging him close enough so he could bend down to press a kiss to his soft brown hair.

* * *

Pepper thought there must’ve been some mistake, there was no way that Peter Parker, _sweet little Peter_, was Tony’s child. May had laughed when she’d pointed it out.

“Just as long as Peter doesn’t end up in any tabloids, we’ll be good,” May said with a smile, glancing over to where Peter was moving his hands animatedly and Tony was firing back just as fast, his grin apparent.

“He really is such a sweet kid.” Pepper looked back to May. “Is he like his mother?”

There was a familiar pain that echoed in May’s eyes and the way her mouth twisted. “Mary was…quiet, she liked to get what she wanted, she was nice, when it suited her…I loved my sister, but she was very complicated and she liked her secrets.”

That was an odd view to take. “I thought she was a scientist.”

“She was,” May agreed, “but Mary was better with numbers than she was with people. That was why she and Richard worked so well…Mary was a very brilliant, but completely neutral…honestly, I think Peter’s a lot more like Tony than maybe he’s aware of.”

May turned back towards Pepper. “It must be weird to get a boyfriend who suddenly finds out he’s a father.”

“It is a curve-ball,” Pepper couldn’t deny that, “but Peter’s such a great kid, I think Tony fell in love immediately.”

“What about you?”

“Peter’s easy to love,” Pepper smiled. “I think we’re both learning what it’s like to have a kid in our lives.” Usually that was something you walked into with eyes wide open, but that didn’t necessarily mean him crash-landing into their lives was a bad thing.

Pepper might’ve gotten a picture of Tony sweeping Peter up into his arms, pressing a kiss to his cheek, Peter’s wide grin clear to see. She now had it as her screensaver on her phone.

“I think Tony is turning into Peter’s favorite person,” May admitted, a soft smile making her whole face glow. The wedding ring hadn’t yet been removed from her finger and Pepper thought she would’ve liked to meet Ben Parker, if she’d gotten the chance. “I’ll have competition.”

There were questions that needed to be answered, about custody, about living arrangements, about future schooling, but they could wait, they all could wait.

Because Pepper didn’t think she’d seen Tony quite as happy as the first time Peter had looked at him and called him “Dad!” without any reservations.

There would be time for that later, now they could bask in the peace and happiness of their newfound relationship.

* * *

“Okay, don’t freak out.”

“You realize that when you say that, it's not much of a comfort to _anyone_ involved,” Rhodey pointed out, drinking his coffee. “Seriously, Tony, what’s going on? Why are we at a primary school?”

And why was Tony dressed like he wasn’t expecting his picture to be taken (which was always), like he was a parent waiting for his child to be finished with school?

“There’s just someone I want you to meet,” Tony told him evasively.

“Tony…” Rhodey wasn’t sure he liked where this was going. “You know how I feel about surprises.”

Tony snorted at that. “How’s this one for size? We’re here to pick up my kid.”

Rhodey paused, let it process, and still couldn’t manage it. “Your kid? _You_ have a _kid?”_

“His name’s Peter Parker, he’s almost eleven and he’s a bucketful of sunshine.” Rhodey had never seen Tony even close to that excited about children before. There’d been a few scares, he remembered, but as far as he knew, Tony hadn’t managed to knock up anyone.

_“Eleven?”_ Rhodey finally managed.

“Almost, three months short, actually.”

“And you just found out, what, two weeks ago?” Rhodey was guessing.

“Three weeks,” Tony corrected, pulling out his phone to show Rhodey a picture of him lifting a small boy with brown hair, pressing a kiss into his hair while the kid laughed. It was a cute picture, Rhodey had to admit. Tony had had a rough few months that he’d thought him and Pepper getting together had been the one thing keeping him going, but maybe this little kid helped too.

“I’ve never seen you so happy about having a kid,” Rhodey admitted, a smile warming across his face.

Tony hummed in agreement. “Peter…Peter was raised right. His aunt, May, did a great job, now I’m just playing catch-up and trying not to ruin a good thing.”

A bell rang inside the school and Tony and Rhodey stayed where they stood as kids filtered out to be met with parents, they waited until a small boy caught sight of Tony and full-on beamed, racing across the parking lot. Tony only bent down just in time to grab him, hoisting him up onto his hip even though the kid was probably a bit too big for that now.

“Hey, kid, how was school?”

“_Boring,_” Peter complained before grinning again. “May says you’re staying the whole weekend this time!”

“I am,” Tony nodded seriously, even when the corners of his lips twitched, “It's gonna be whatever you want all weekend long.”

Peter’s eyes gleamed in a way that Rhodey recognized.

“As long as May’s okay with it,” Tony amended and Peter pouted before looking over Tony’s shoulder to scrutinize Rhodey. “This is Rhodey by the way, he’s gonna be your uncle.”

Rhodey was used to people hearing Tony say they were brothers and then looking between them in confusion, like two people of different races couldn’t be brothers, but Peter didn’t even blink.

“Hi,” he said shyly, hiding his face in his dad’s shoulder and come on, Rhodey had to admit that was super cute.

“Hi, Peter,” Rhodey couldn’t help but smile, “your daddy’s been telling me all about you.”

Peter hid his face completely, but Rhodey could still see how red his ears were.

“All right, Sunshine, let’s get you outta here, hm?” Tony’s grip loosened to gradually lower Peter back to the ground.

“Ice cream?” Peter perked.

“Nah, kid, your aunt’ll kill me if I keep giving you ice cream,” Tony snorted. “We’re going for churros.”

**Author's Note:**

> This series is going to be massively AU, obviously, and its more likely just going to be slices of life and nothing is really canon after Avengers, or even during Avengers, because its my sandbox and I do what I want
> 
> You can request certain scenes within the AU if you want to see what it would be like in this series, I might do them, I might not :)
> 
> Follow me on tumblr: @greygryffindor


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